2002 BMW Mini Cooper review from North America

Under warranty: transmission seal leaking, doors unlocking by themselves, fan failing, airbag light on without impact, miscellaneous recalls.

After warranty: rear LED top light cracking, brake lights always on, mirror module failed, seems to have overheated.

I have a launch edition 2002 Mini Cooper, which I bought brand new.

I have had a love-hate relationship with my car; I love the way it handles, how fuel efficient it is and convenient to park; I hate feeling as thought it will fail me again and again and again.

So far I have been lucky, it hasn't cost me much to repair it, but I have a very uncomfortable feeling that it will (it now has 83000 km).

The dealership near my house has a very good service department, and there's a couple of advisors I go to whom I trust more than the others. But the electricals on these cars are just plain unreliable. I have bought a CAA membership for my Mini just in case.

I have a 16 year-old Honda Civic with 260,000kms that loves me more than my very expensive Mini (37,000 CAD after all is said and done).

I have resisted selling it ever since its warranty expired a year ago, but I am now close to the point of accepting that it must be done. At least I can get about 16,000 CAD for it, and maybe buy something reliable like the Honda Fit (doubt that I'll love it as much, but I'm pretty sure I won't hate is as much), except the Honda dealers around here are real #$^&*!